Winner of Female Excellence Award wins place in MGSM Leadership course

On October 25, 2011, the Association of Financial Advisors (AFA) awarded its Female Excellence in Advice Award to its inaugural winner, Olivia Maragna, at a presentation ceremony at The Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast. The first prize included a place in MGSM’s Leadership Development Course and an impressive trophy handmade by TAL’s (formerly known as Tower) National Marketing Director, Aranka Nolan.

This is the first year of the Female Excellence in Advice Award, the award received an outstanding 105 nominations from which six finalists were chosen. The judging panel included MGSM’s Executive Education Corporate Partner, Ian Cureton, MGSM alumni and the Managing Director of The MindShifts Group, Babette Bensoussan, CEO of TAL (formerly known as Tower), Brett Clark, TAL National Marketing Manager, Aranka Nolan, and CEO of the AFA, Richard Klipin.

 

Olivia is the co-founder and General Manager of Aspire Retire, was named the 2008 Telstra Queensland Young Woman of the Year and at 28 was the youngest Australian to receive SMSF Specialist Adviser certification with the Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals Association of Australia. In 2009, Olivia joined with the Canegrowers Association on a two-month speaking tour to encourage and inspire women in Queensland’s regional areas to take an active role in their cane growing businesses.

MGSM’s Ian Cureton said: “Just being a part of the judging panel was rewarding and inspiring. While Olivia was clearly a strong candidate for the award; it was not an easy decision. Each finalist had an impressive array of achievements and clear talent, as one finalist said ‘it was anyone’s award’.”

The AFA and TAL created the award to encourage greater participation by females in leadership roles within the profession, provide clients with more choice when obtaining advice, and take action towards addressing the issues of female under-insurance and the low level of women’s superannuation savings.